Gloucester Notebook: Candidates may start filing soon

Gloucester County also rolls out new website

January 10, 2011|By Matt Sabo, msabo@dailypress.com | 757-247-4712

Gloucester General Registrar Carole Gates said last week that she expects to see candidates filing paperwork to run for office by the end of January. Her office was fielding calls from candidates prior to the Christmas holidays, but no phone calls have come in from candidates since Jan. 1, she said.

One thing to keep an eye on is how redistricting could affect candidates for office. In the 2001 redistricting, the county added four precincts and some of the boundary line changes were significant, Gates said. Candidates who live near boundary lines could be affected by redistricting, she said.

New website

Gloucester County has a new website. The county pulled back the cyber curtain on its website at the start of the year. Here's a sampling of what Christi Lewis, the county spokeswoman, wrote about it: "Convenient and user-friendly services include search tools, printing icons, RSS subscription and Browsealoud for speech-enabled web pages. Language translation is also offered through links to free language translation services."

The new website also has other special features and more than 600 web pages, 2,000 informational documents and 4,000 links. The website is quite popular, based on statistics provided by the county. Last year, the website had 23,634,831 hits. The average number of hits per day was 64,572, according to the county. Considering Gloucester County has fewer than 40,000 residents, those are some serious hits.

911 misused

Here's a tip. When someone is annoying you in a minor spat, don't call 911 four times. You may end up facing a criminal charge. A woman who lives on Hickory Fork Road called 911 on Dec. 28 to complain that "people were in her face," according to the weekly Gloucester County Sheriff's Office crime log.

A Gloucester Sheriff's deputy removed someone from the house and gave the 911 caller advice that went along the lines of, "Stay in your room." The deputy also told the woman she misused the 911 system and issued her a summons for "annoying phone calls."

In other criminal activity, for the second time within a month's time someone has broken into the Adner Market by yanking the electric meter off the building to turn off the video recording system in the store. Just after midnight on Jan. 3 a Gloucester Sheriff's deputy noticed the building was dark and the front door was busted out, according to the crime log. The same thing occurred Dec. 8. On Jan. 3, the thief made off with $40 from a lottery machine and a carton of cigarettes valued at $28.

Case heard last

Tuesday's appeal before the Virginia Supreme Court by the Gloucester 40 is scheduled to be heard last. Previously, the case was scheduled sixth on the docket of seven cases. Steve Emmert, the Virginia Beach appellate attorney hired by the Gloucester 40, said the case may be heard around noon. It could be heard earlier if cases move quickly.

The 40 Gloucester residents were sanctioned $2,000 apiece two years ago for what a judge termed was an abuse of the judicial system. The group unsuccessfully filed petitions seeking the removal from office of four county supervisors.